Every day millions of women confront uncomfortable and sometimes painful health problems related to menopause and hormone imbalances; individualized treatment, including the use of Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is proving to be a beneficial treatment approach for many of those women.

The Wyeth Corporation (maker of synthetic hormones) has petitioned the FDA against the production of bioidentical hormones. If granted, the petition would undermine the health care provider-patient relationship and limit women in their access to BHRT.

Petition the FDA for your rights here

Pregnant women in this country are for ever being warned about the danger of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - and don't get me wrong:  I realize it is a very sad and too frequent problem.  However, it has always made me wonder why the entire nation of France, where judicious wine drinking  is  recommended to relax pregnant women and indeed, is an integral part of their lifestyle - how come, as I say, all the  babies born there are not suffering from FAS?

Another French paradox.  And like the other one, dependent on diet.

It turns out that in a mouse study, adding B3 (nicotinamide) to the diet prevented FAS.  B3 is found in :  Lean meat, chicken breast, turkey breast, fish & seafood, kidney, liver, rhubarb, avocado, figs, dates, prunes, free range eggs, milk products, brown rice, white wheat, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, barley, roasted peanuts.

So emphasize B vitamin rich foods for a healthy outcome to a pregnancy, even if a little wine is consumed. Extra wheat germ and brewer's yeast would be good.

Here is the study.

We are all, I am sure, familiar with the saying "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics". (Twain?  d'Israeli)

Watch Dr. Moss use his scalpel to pull apart the claim that Cancer deaths are falling - and by the way, WHOSE cancer deaths are we talking about?  Male or female patients??

"And even when a death is ultimately a result of cancer, the immediate cause of the patient's demise may not be recorded as such, but as something else - pneumonia, hemorrhage, or abdominal obstruction leading to peritonitis, for example. This is not even to mention deaths from acute toxicity due to treatment itself, or deaths due to complications of surgery for cancer, which are also generally not recorded as cancer deaths. The aforementioned Dr. Welch has found, for example, that "some deaths that are conventionally attributed to surgery are not being attributed to the cancer for which the surgery was performed" (Welch 2002)." 

Read Dr. Moss's report here - scroll down for the meat of the matter!

Since one of their most lucrative drugs, Premarin,  has been overtaken by events ( the increasingly common kind, it would seem: death by prescription), Wyeth is fighting back.  They are trying to make over the counter bio-identical hormones illegal, and put compounding pharmacies out of business.

If these tactics arouse your indignation, as they do mine, please take a closer look at what is going on, and send your comments to the FDA as suggested here:

International Academy of Compounding Chemists - BHRT (Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy) 

I imagine all of us have at one time or another experienced the uplifting, sublime feeliing that comes from being alone and quiet in the woods:  who knew that we were building our defenses against cancer at the same time.

 Forest Bathing, or Shinrinyoku as it is called in Japan, has been shown to increase NK cells significantly. 

Read about it here, then go out and doubly enjoy your nature walk.

I can't help it, I feel a pleasant glow when the things we holistic nutritionists have been saying for years, finally get the science behind them - it seems to happen so regularly.  I remember, for example, telling a client in 1975 or so that butter was infinitely better than margarine for the health:  and being ostracized in consequence!

Here is a damning report on the effect of factory farming on the nutrient levels in foods.

And, since I can't resist the opportunity to preach a bit about a subject dear to my heart, here is an even more damning commentary on the social effects of that inhumane practice:

THE MEATRIX

I am back safely from sunny California - where it rained all but 2 of the days I was there! -  and will be posting about my experience over the next week.

Stay tuned!